A typical eCommerce marketplace has witnessed its fair share of transitions and evolutions. With all these alterations underway — this domain has gone on to become one of the most lucrative sectors of the 21st Century.So, what’s next on the plate for a traditional eCommerce business?The answer is relatively simple and straight-forward — BLOCKCHAIN.Blockchain has been enjoying a good run in the financial industry for quite some time now. According to a recent Statista Report, the global blockchain market is expected to see a surge of more than 400% by 2021.As blockchain is inching closer to the real sectors of the economy — An increasing number of people have now started talking about other possible use-cases of blockchain apart from finance, especially in the most lucrative domain of them all — (...)

Geeba plans to use blockchain technology to improve the speed of e-commerce deliveries and ease the burden on urban infrastructures.Urban delivery is expensive due to outdated technologies and a lack of flexibility in the supply chainBlockchain technology is often touted as a world-historic shift in how we organize information, conduct economic transactions, and even our political structures. Yet, blockchain also has many less dramatic applications that fall short of fundamental social transformation. These practical applications still make a positive contribution to the social good.“Last-Mile” DeliveryMany sectors of the traditional economy have segments in which blockchain technology could be hugely helpful in increasing efficiency, reducing waste, and easing pressure on urban (...)

When it’s about trends in e-commerce, the effect of #ai is considerable.Simply being online is no longer enough for your e-commerce site. The “AI Effect” can be useful for you in facing challenges and competing with brands like Amazon.Pain Points that Can’t Be OverlookedInconsistency between channels — In the midst of trying to connect to every shopping channel, e-retailers create inconsistencies in brand and experience.Inventory management — Managing inventory across channels is the main challenge for most e-commerce businesses.Shipping and Returns — E-commerce brands need to apply clear and flexible returns with labels for every product purchase. Also, e-commerce businesses want delivery of their goods safely and on time.Payment Methods — The payment methods in e-commerce include digital wallets (...)

Blockchain technology is bringing the power back to shopperseCommerce marketplace giants such as Amazon, which alone takes up to near 50% of the U.S. #ecommerce market share, have transformed the way people shop: empowering shoppers to easily make cross-border purchases, compare and select goods from multiple vendors on a single platform.Consumer behaviour has also shifted in this evolution of the digital environment, with 64% of respondents in a global Amazon and Pymnts.com survey stating that they begin product searches at marketplaces, citing product variety and price as key motivators.With the evolution of the eCommerce industry and more discerning shoppers with no lack of choices, this presents a new set of challenges and opportunities for industry players. In this competitive (...)

With the help of AI, Alibaba’s Xianyu tech team is advancing an intelligent tool that renders visual UI design as Flutter code with 100 percent accuracyAs we explored in our recent article on AI-based algorithm development, automation is quickly changing from something to that developers can work on into something that can do developers’ work. While the extent of this shift remains to be seen in the years to come, one major focus today is how AI can tackle the repetitive and tedious aspects of application development so human developers can focus their efforts elsewhere.Now, developers at Alibaba’s Xianyu(闲鱼) second-hand trading platform have launched the UI2CODE project to apply deep learning technology in converting visual user interface images to client-side code. With clear component, (...)

How To Spend Your Bitcoin And Crypto On Ebay ItemsBuying something on eBay is normal to most people. Now, there are ways to purchase eBay items using bitcoin and other #cryptocurrency. Forra has tied eBay listings into its native platform. Allowing anyone to purchase something from eBay using bitcoin other cryptocurrency.You Can View Our Marketplace Here: ▻https://market.forra.ioHow Is It Possible To Buy Something On eBay Using Bitcoin Or Other CryptocurrencyForra is responsible for allowing users to buy eBay items with bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. We want to develop the tools that allow people to use their cryptocurrency as a currency. We think that by building these tools we will increase the adoption of cryptocurrency.Having businesses like eBay accept bitcoin or other (...)

…and a shared Supply Chain and an #ecommerce SystemDr. Drew MillerManaging Director, Blockchain Business Consultantsdrmiller@bchainconsult.comAn article, “The Shrinking Middle Class: How We Got Here, And Why” in the December 2018 issue of Fortune magazine reported how many urban neighborhoods have no small stores left, and residents must travel miles to get groceries.[i] Walmart decimated small retailers, and Amazon is now finishing the job. Mega retailers also raise competitive barriers for small manufacturers and shape an economy favoring mega firms, not small town, neighborhood businesses. Great for the richest family in the world, the Walton heirs, and the richest man in the world, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, but not the rest of us. Tech giants like Amazon don’t just abuse small manufacturers (...)

People prefer eCommerce solutions when shopping. A survey of 2,500 participants conducted by Periscope found that more consumers are shopping for everyday items online. However, the modern digital shopper is easily turned off by poor user experience (UX). This is partly why eCommerce testing for your website and/or mobile application is critical prior to launch. This article looks at effective ways of improving eCommerce testing so you can truly serve your customers.Are There Any Other Reasons Why We Test eCommerce?Yes, lack of testing means you’re willing to compromise other things that quickly become business nightmares, such as data security. Truly knowledgeable eCommerce development companies not only build your application but also test for exploitable vulnerabilities. This is (...)

How I Built My First Machine Learning Software-As-A-ServiceAnd guess what? It didn’t need any funding. But it did need humans (and still does)My first payment from a real customer finally cleared. Product Pix just made $65.36. I feel like I can finally write a bit about my journey so far in building a #saas (software as a service). I can finally tell for sure that someone out there thinks my site is generating real value.And the site still doesn’t have any payment or subscription page! The transaction arose from the client reaching out to me and asking how much the service costs, because they needed to use my service at scale.That’s a good sign, right? So elegant. Here I am, a machine learning consultant, writing some code on my spare time, and I’m getting people to pay me for using it. Sheer (...)

E commerce companies ship their products to customers via multiple courier partners. Most of them have an automated courier selection process for #shipping. At IB one of the major challenges we faced was the increasing #logistics cost. Hence we developed a system to automatically recommend the courier to be selected for each package that was shipped from our warehouses and by our sellers spread across India. It is essential for every company who rely on multiple courier service to optimise their logistics cost. Through this article I would like to give a brief overview of a simple courier selection system. This system need not be a web app, this could be even run on a excel based system and hence even small companies can take the advantage of this approach.Master DataThis include the (...)

The Urgency for Speed in 2019:New Research Finds 45% of Customers Won’t Buy From a Slow SiteBy Sarah Gooding, Communications and PR Manager at UnbounceWe’ve all experienced a slow web page. We’ve felt the frustration that builds for every second that little icon continues to spin.We all know the feeling: We want that page open, and we want it open NOW.As consumers, we expect to be able to browse the web, buy products, and find the answers to our questions quickly — and instantaneously would be even better. Unfortunately, this expectation is often unmet. In 2019 the average size of a webpage has ballooned, and with it, the length of time consumers have to wait for a page to open. Things are even slower on smartphones. The average web page has doubled in size over the past 3 years, so consumers (...)

The entire landscape of trade has transformed in the last two decades. It had long ago shifted from the grudging offline experience to the easier and comfortable e-commerce experience — where everything could be bought or sold by a click of button.I am quite certain that most of us are pretty much aware of that. It is also safe to assume that almost every one of us might have either heard of or used some of the services of the companies mentioned in this list.The eCommerce landscape is dominated by the worlds’ elite — Billionaire businessmen like Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, and others, are in a relentless race to dominate the eCommerce realm.After all, the eCommerce industry is without a doubt the most lucrative business of the 21st Century.Now, one might assume that he or she knows pretty much (...)

From purchasing a pen to selling real-estate, everything could be done on a click of a button.Venture along with us on a journey to thoroughly understand each and every aspect of eCommerce in the upcoming series of articles.So, have you finally decided to go beyond brick and mortar?If yes, then read through this article carefully and by the end of it, I assure you that you’ll get a clear and comprehensive understanding of which platform would be the best for your business.Firstly, clap for yourselves, as this is a great idea!If it can be sold — There is eCommerce to sell it!Digitally selling goods is a big decision and since you have decided on it, you are already halfway in on this roller-coaster ride.There are a plethora of options available for selling online. On one hand, there are (...)

How to Enhance Your #payments UsabilityWhen the word “Usability” pops-up, quite often users confuse it with — “User Experience”.The usability of any product shapes its user experience, and thus, usability is a part of #ux. Usability is not just the comfort of using a product, but a lot more about user satisfaction, a website being aesthetically pleasant and engaging.Online retailers previously overlooked the checkout page optimization and focused only on optimizing the front end, design and product alignment on their website. This made sense because what the user came across was the front end, that convinces the user to make a purchase.However, when it comes to conversion, it is the website checkout page that needs to be optimized in terms of product specifications & call-to-action buttons (...)

Ecommerce is not the future of retail — it is its reality. According to a Pew Research Center survey, eight in ten Americans prefer shopping online, which means that online stores have become a powerful tool in the hands of go-getting business owners. This fact means that the idea of opening your own online store is not bad at all.But however bright the idea of your new online business, it needs to be turned into reality to start generating profit. And this is where ecommerce development companies come to the rescue: they analyze your business demands, design and develop the future ecommerce website, and provide technical support for it.There are hundreds of such companies, all of them claiming that they deliver the best services on the market. Without seeing the big picture, it might be (...)

So you are looking to develop your own eCommerce Store and confused between choosing either #laravel eCommerce packages or CMS like Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify etc.Building an eCommerce store is one hell of tasks and is a complicated endeavour.It’s not just about choosing the right language or framework for development, major complications come in defining right data workflow and technical specifications to be involved.Below are few tech-specs you should consider to ensure your website is functional, successful, and secure.Database Model/Technique/PatternOf all the things, the most crucial part is how your eCommerce website is storing and accessing product information.Let us understand this with an existing problem:Suppose you are a retailer who wants to store simple product information (...)

The 4-Point Design Checklist to Build a Successful #ecommerce AppEcommerce AppAn e-commerce site can be considered as an effective tool for any business to showcase its portfolio of products and services. To fulfill this purpose it must have a responsive design, robust security, guest checkout feature, and optimal site performance and knowledge of the target audience.Starting a business from scratch is a huge thing to tackle. But the rewards that a complete fully functional website brings with it is worthy of all the pains and efforts. But the challenges do not launch here. There are many more issues to be dealt with in order to grow, diversify and sustain.Things to Know before Creating the First E-commerce ApplicationIt is essential to have a clear strategy to attract the right (...)

Blockchain Hasn’t Taken Over the E-Commerce Industry Yet, What’s Holding it Back?As the global economy continues to embrace an online and ever-connected framework, there’s one sector growing year-over-year that can’t be ignored, e-commerce. Consumers are always on the lookout for new, innovative ways to complete their purchases and are doing more research than ever when going through the buying process. This means more time spent online and more goods being bought by users from the comfort of their home, rather than from a physical store.While the majority of retail shopping is still being done in-person in stores (a reality that Amazon is fully aware of and working to adapt to), e-commerce sales are growing steadily year-over-year and are finding deeper market penetration in retail (...)

Blockchain governance is a critical issue as the technology gains wider use across industries. It attracted close attention after the Ethereum DAO incident, where a token holder exploited a bug to funnel about one third of the total value in the network into their own account. (The bug was later fixed via a “forking” algorithm, but the issue remains an open question.) More recently, the heist of more than half a billion dollars’ worth of digital currency from the Coincheck exchange in Japan was largely due to a weak governance structure, which in turn was because of lack of standardization to enable timely action.Governance is about who makes the rules and who enforces them. It is not only about the control of the blockchain; it identifies resolution mechanisms to deal with technological (...)

The worrying thing is they are succeedingPhoto by Pedro Lastra on UnsplashLast night, I was talking to a friend who was trying to persuade me to switch my online shopping back to the local offline merchants. He feels that if we don’t, we will end up helping the Amazons and Flipkarts, which are non-Indian business entities, to put more and more small Indian businesses out of business. Once that happens, these big businesses will become monopolies or duopolies and we will be at their mercy, be it in terms of price or choice or availability of things or whatever.Oddly enough, I have been advocating a boycott of Amazon for the same reasons, as well as Amazon’s lack of #ethics, which is another story. In fact, I have managed to avoid shopping online for long stretches of time. Sadly, to my own (...)

The Entry of Plaza Systems.Credits: PicjumboGet your Phone, drink coffee or tea and Shop! We don’t need to go to malls just to buy and sell something. The world is really on digital era indeed ecommerce that was refer to buying and selling online. It means whether you buy or sell using internet, then you’re involved with ecommerce. These days, is there anyone never use internet for buying and selling? maybe 9 out 10 people using it?Everyday, I just lyin in my bed with my two daughters. I just Scrolling on Amazon sometimes on Lazada to buy and selling items since I don’t have time to shop and sell my items to the malls.Internet is one of my bestfriend, without internet, I will never having a buy and sell business.Disclamer: This article is not a financial advice. I’m not a financial (...)

This article is part 1 of a 5-part mini-series on DataOps at Alibaba. This installment looks at how Alibaba uses a project migration method to remove bottlenecks in its operations with big data platform MaxCompute, among other optimizations.In the world of big data, elaborate computing platforms are a necessary tool for dealing with the sheer scale of processing needs that users’ business goals present. More recently, however, they have also become the focus of efforts to evolve from human decision making toward data-driven decision making in operations and maintenance, creating a series of development challenges for major tech firms like e-commerce giant Alibaba.MaxCompute, formerly known as ODPS, stands alone in Alibaba’s technical ecosystem as an internally-developed big data platform (...)

Companies tend to lose $1.6 trillion in business as the customer switches to another product due to poor customer service. By 2020, the major focus of some of the leading companies will only be to provide a better experience to their clients.In 2010, 24% of the Americans had posted online product reviews so currently, the number will be quite high as compared to this ancient statistic. These reviews pay a pivotal role in other customers in deciding whether a product is worth their time or not and coming across a fake review will definitely cause an undermined user experience.Here are a few ways in which companies can use AI for better customer relationship management and to eliminate fake reviews from the web altogether.Relying on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) DatabaseA number (...)

Diligent technicians are rarely under the lime light. In this article, we look at what it is like to work at Alibaba during the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival for O&M engineer Ren Ruxian.Alibaba’s annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2018Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, set each year on China’s November 11 Singles’ Day, has garnered widespread global attention in recent years. On the eve of this year’s festival, which grossed a record-breaking 30.8 billion dollars, announcements declaring it could be seen in renowned public spaces from New York’s Times Square to the lawn of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and even reflected in London’s Thames River.As it gains recognition, some may wonder what it is like to work behind the scenes of such a massive (...)